Rift Reloaded: How I Would Improve Rift

Rift is, without a doubt, the best MMO on the market today.  I've done seven years of WoW, six months of Final Fantasy XI and three months of Warhammer Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Aion alike.  I've played Guild Wars 2 extensively (quite a bit more than just a lone beta weekend if you catch my drift).  I've done a month of Tera and I have an active account for The Secret World as I type this.  All of these games bring something positive to the table but none of them can compete with the overall quality of Rift.  Comparatively, Guild Wars 2 and WoW have better PvP.  Aion and Final Fantasy XI have significantly better music and provide superior overall immersion.  Tera, by and large, has combat that is a bit more fun and engaging.  Star Wars: The Old Republic has an incredible companion and crafting system that leaves Rift's traditional MMO crafting system in the dust and even Warhammer Online has some bits and pieces such as keep sieges that leave perhaps a small bit to be desired in Telara.  Rift may not be the best at any particular category, although I'd make an exception for Rift's raid content.  Yet Rift is good at just about everything leaving us with an exceptionally polished and high quality MMO.  With all this said, however, are there improvements to be made?  Absolutely.  As any MMO company knows, the real work begins once the game has shipped and nobody comes even remotely close to challenging the speed and scope by which Trion delivers outstanding content.

Despite patch 1.9 being a very recent addition to the game, patch 1.10 is already well under way.  Further, Rift's Storm Legion expansion is pending a Fall release.  Guild Wars 2 releases at the end of August.  Mists of Pandaria hits shelves less than a month later.  I want nothing more than Trion to not only compete with these titles, but to really show the world that Rift is, has been and will continue to be the best MMO available.  It is in the spirit of this cause I present my thoughts on how I would personally improve Rift in the coming months.  This list is not exhaustive and I'm purposely leaving out substantial features such as "a new raid" or "a new Warfront".  Rather these changes are focused in large part around improvements that can be made to the existing content of the game to the benefit of players everywhere.  Without further adieu, let's begin:

• General
• A "loop music" feature has been added to the UI under "Audio".
• Attentive travelers may now encounter a few new musical tracks throughout Telara!
• The LFD tool is now cross-faction!
• Disgruntled Defiants and grouchy Guardians may now defect from their faction.  A new epic questline is now available for each Defiant and Guardian should they choose to defect.  Returning to one's original faction is possible but let's just say one must "pay their dues" to win back the favor of their original comrades.
• The races of Telara are no longer faction-specific.  Kelari Guardians?  Dwarf Defiants?  You bet!
• All new titles associated with the leaderboards have been added.  Think you're hardcore enough to earn the most favor in a week?  Prove it!  Think your guild is good enough to complete Hammerknell Fortress in record time?  Get to it!  Title rewards are shown in the leaderboards UI similar to how they are shown in the achievements UI.
• Tier 3 Planar Attunement has now arrived and offers new interesting abilities for all elemental schools along with some modest stat improvements.
• New weather effects have been added to the game including sandstorms in Shimmersand and thunderstorms in Moonshade Highlands.  Weather effects can be toggled in UI settings.
• Training abilities at your class trainer may now be done in bulk.  Click the "Train All" button and you will be prompted with the total cost.
• Character
• In the interest of maintaining an RP-friendly environment, moderation is getting a much-needed boost for RP shards.  Naming policies and chat guidelines will be strictly enforced on these realms.  Potential transfers to RP shards will be prompted of these policies and must accept them before being allowed to transfer there.
• Players may now create a background or story behind their character that is visible to other players through inspection.  To access your back story, open up the character panel and select "Background".
• Questing
• We realize that questing is significantly slower than other leveling methods.  As such, experience rewarded for quests has been increased across the board.  This increase is less noticeable at lower levels but is substantial at higher levels.  For example, a level 40 quest that presently rewards 3000 experience upon completion, will now reward approximately 7000 instead.
• We've streamlined many of the quest hubs and "tied them together" a bit better so players have more direction while questing.  No more should you have to wander aimlessly in search of peril!
• Conquest
• The Oathsworn, Nightfall and Dominion alike have perfected a means such that players no longer take falling damage while in Conquest.
• The total number of extractors has been reduced to 20.  Zerg play can be fun but capturing and holding an extractor should be important.
• The amount of Empowered Sourcestone mined by an extractor increases over time.
• The portal destinations of Caer Mathos, The Eye of Regulos, Burlingham and Briarcliff now have portals of their own.  Visiting one of these locations allows you to port to any other portal you currently own.
• Base mounted speed in Conquest has been increased to 150% for all participants. Mounted speed can still be improved through crafting.
• Favor and prestige gains for defending an extractor have been slightly increased
• Favor and prestige gains for capturing an extractor have been substantially increased
• During the final 10 minutes after a Conquest match has been won, a moderate bonus to favor and prestige gains is applied.
• The kill counter has been reduced from 5000 to 4000.
• The sudden death timer that begins when a faction hits or exceeds 60% ownership, has been reduced from 10 minutes to 5 minutes.
• PvP
• PvP gear vendors now provide only two sets of PvP gear for purchase: the previous tier and the current tier.  The prices for the previous tier gear set have been set to the prices that presently exist for the lowest tier of PvP gear while the prices for the  "current" tier gear have been set to the prices that presently exists for the highest tier of PvP gear.
• Notoriety with The Unseen and The Order of the Eye is now obtainable within Warfronts.
• Mounts, costumes, weapon effects, companions and more!  All new vanity items are available through the PvP vendors, for some favor of course.  Many of these items carry rank restrictions so hit the battlefield and perhaps you can one day own your very own Fluffy, the Destroyer of Worlds!
• In order to keep lower-level PvP as competitive as possible, Warfronts while leveling now automatically bolster all participants to the maximum level for that Warfront bracket.
• The PvP planar attunement trees are now "separate" from the elemental trees and favor is now the currency for this instead of experience points.  Any existing points spent in a PvP hex will stay but future points will now leverage favor instead of experience.  Respecing Planar Attunement will now return favor for any PvP hexes.
• Instant Adventure
• Instant Adventure has been overhauled to tell more of a story with each campaign.  No more mindless "kill 10 wolves because that's what the quest tracker says".
• To accommodate story-telling as part of Instant Adventure, experience and loot rewards have been adjusted.  The result should be a slight overall increase in the amount of XP and loot you receive compared to Instant Adventures of old.
• Instant Adventure has arrived for Scarwood Reach, Scarlet Gorge, Moonshade Highlands and Iron Pine Peak!
• The ability to queue for Instant Adventure per zone regardless of present location is back and all zones are now listed in the IA panel.  Queuing for a random adventure still exists and provides a bonus to IA gains for a fixed number of IA campaigns that day.
• Dungeons
• Rewards for completing a random dungeon have been adjusted and ascended now have a choice among the following:
• 6 Plaques of Achievement
• 4 Marks of Ascension
• 3 Greater Marks of Ascension
• 2 Infernal Marks
• 10 Inscribed Sourcestone
• Crafting
• A whole new line of enhancements for Seals are now available for Runecrafters.  Want to have your attacks apply a stacking fire DoT instead of that 9 AP rune?  Now you can!  Want getting hit to provide a 20% chance of increasing your mitigation?  Go for it!
• A new section to the personal bank is now available for storing crafting mats and, what's more, this section is account-wide so you can now use crafting mats from any of your characters for any of your characters.  And, yes, you can use these crafting mats directly from the bank without needing to have them in your inventory.
• An assortment of recipes for vanity items have been added to the game files and can be acquired throughout Telara!  Sometimes the best reward for churning out a well-made potion is the ability to transform into a werewolf!

This list is far from complete but, in the interest of brevity, I'll stop there.  These are merely some of the improvements I would make to Rift with the goal of improving engagement and generally making the playing experience more fun overall.

What are your thoughts on these changes?  Do you find them agreeable or are there some you are opposed to?

Rift PvP and the Curious Case of Supporting Barriers to Entry

The title itself is baffling enough on its own but when you step back and consider it being said without even the slightest intention of sarcasm, it can conjure up desires to slam one's own head in the freezer door ad nauseum.  Yet, sadly, this is precisely where we find ourselves at this point in Rift's history: the majority clamoring for a reduction to the grind found throughout Telara while a small but extremely vocal minority arrives on the scene to fight this cause within an inch of their collective lives.  It's baffling.  It's unimaginable.  And, yes, it's very curious indeed.

In an earlier blog post, written prior to the implementation of Conquest, I laid out a collection of unarguable math that vividly illustrates an extremely clear point: if you want to PvP on a relatively level playing field, you're looking at an absolute bare minimum of 50.5 hours inside Warfronts beforehand.  Think about that for a moment.  50.5 hours.  Fifty-point-five hours.  Five, zero, point, five hours.  Given the most optimal possible situation imaginable, this is the bare minimum amount of time you'll have to "put in" before you will be at a gear level I am being extremely generous in calling "competitive".  For anyone capable of looking at the bigger picture, the argument ends right there.  No further examination required.  No more debate about it.  However, the vocal minority, for reasons that elude me, is quick to assault what is quite reasonable logic with tired and worn arguments whose existence in MMOs of today is a travesty on their own.  With this entry to The Ascended Chronicle, I'd like to examine these arguments, dissect them and close the proverbial book on the case once and for all.  Without further adieu, let's begin.

Argument 1:  You just want everything handed to you without having to work for it.  You're lazy and need to put in the time and effort just like the rest of us did.

This argument is so easily destroyed I almost hesitate to address it but, in the interest of thoroughness, it needs to be done.  To begin, consider the use of the terms "time and effort".  You may substitute your own synonyms at your leisure but the sentiment remains: the vocal minority claims we need to work hard to achieve our goals which, in the case at hand, is simply to obtain enough PvP gear to be competitive.  In the real world, this is a noble and proper position to take: work hard, put in your time and enjoy the rewards of your sweat-born efforts.  This is the mindset that built the railroads, put the first plane in the sky and cured polio.  The problem is that we aren't talking about the real world.  We're talking about a video game set in a fictitious, fantasy world called Telara.  We're speaking of a destination we collectively turn to for a break from reality - a respite of enjoyment where the material world slips into the background and fun replaces obligation and responsibility.  If you think otherwise, then I respectfully urge you to take an extended break from the game to assess your goals and aspirations.  What follows from all this comes easily: under the umbrella of video gaming, concepts of "hard work" and "putting in the time" needn't apply.  Concepts of "having fun", "enjoying the game" and "competing against fellow gamers" do.  It's not about "wanting things handed to you".  It's about enjoying the game and being able to compete during your time therein.  Being a doormat for those gone before while you "put in your time" is not fun and it's not good for the game.  Allowing people to compete the onset is.

Argument 2:  If you're going to ask for PvP gear to be practically handed out then I want PvE gear practically handed out too.

The issues with this argument are so plain and so readily visible that they practically jump off the page.  Here we are comparing two different systems, PvP and PvE, and claiming that an adjustment to one necessitates and adjustment to the other.  The counter argument could honestly stop there as no further rebuttal is required to expose the fallacy of this worldview.  But were I to do this, I'd be shirking my duty to not just counter these arguments but to destroy them outright.  PvE in Rift is a purposely gated system of linear progression.  You start at some arbitrary point about the PvE difficulty spectrum and you progress onward to be met with increasingly difficult challenges as you become ready.  If you are brand new to Rift raiding, and a fresh 50, you might begin in the Drowned Halls and Greenscales Blight.  After you are comfortable with the encounters therein and have gotten some drops thrown your way, you might venture into Hammerknell Fortress to test yourself against even more challenging encounters still.  The cycle continues and the challenges will wait as long as you need them too.  In PvP, the opposite is true.  From the moment you enter Rift PvP, you are immediately thrown to the wolves.  You may occasionally find yourself in a very loosely "matched" Warfront but even the matched Warfronts themselves are not perfect barriers preventing the entry of vastly superior opposition.  I'd be a much wealthier man were I paid for each time I arrived in a matched Warfront during low prestige levels only to be obliterated by a max-rank opponent.  In other words, there is no gating and there is no "progression" - there is only Rift PvP.  Rift's PvP system, using a PvE metaphor, would be like facing Prince Hylas one moment and the very next being thrown into Laethys' treasure room.  Tell me: would your outlook on Rift PvE be different were that actually the case?

Argument 3:  I don't know what you're talking about.  I was able to "compete" from the very moment I stepped into Warfronts and there were many ways for me to contribute even with no PvP gear at all.

This is often an argument of last resort when the vocal minority realizes the ground beneath their feet is anything but solid.  Specifically, they are attempting to equate the terms "compete" and "contribute" and are referring to particular abilities and play styles that allow them to "take part" in PvP with at least some level of effectiveness.  You'll hear them refer to Marksman Eradicate spam, being a pocket healer for some exceptionally-geared Warrior or perhaps running as a tank and holding on to a vessel in some dark corner of the Library.  Are these actions representative of "competing" in PvP?  No - they are without a doubt ways to "contribute" but they are most certainly not "competing".  Competing must be considered with respect to a level playing field.  Everyone inherently knows whether or not they are "competitive" but to illustrate it clearly, consider yourself a Warrior and, standing before you, is a Warrior competitor.  Your opponent has 1300 valor, 100 vengeance and 11,000 health.  You have 1000 valor from the Ascended Courage buff, perhaps 20 vengeance and 6,500 health.  Tell me and be honest: who is going to win this battle?  Barring unforeseen circumstances of a kitten pulling the plug on his router mid-battle or Steam deciding it needs to download it's 27th Team Fortress updates this week, do you have even the slightest chance against this opponent?  I know, you know and everybody knows that the deck is more than just stacked against you here and your chances of defeating this opponent fall somewhere between winning the lottery and lightning chiseling out a blueprint for Meridian in the grass of your backyard.  Certainly you could "contribute" in this circumstance.  Perhaps you can survive long enough to waste that Warrior's time while your team captures another node in The Codex.  Alternatively, maybe you decide to mount up and lead our mentally challenged friend on a chase around Whitefall Steppes thus taking him out of the game for the time being.  The fact remains that you are not at all "competing" - you are "contributing" and the two are very different.  To some, simply "contributing" in gimmicky, one-off manners such as these may prove adequate sustenance while you put in your time towards competitiveness.  For most of us, however, this is not engaging game play and is absolutely no substitute for real competition.

Undoubtedly there are more arguments that could be presented here but in the interest of forgoing the production of a novel, I'll consider the point made with these three.  To be clear, the entire concept of rallying in favor of barriers to entry defies logic.  I don't know when this argument will be officially voted upon by Trion's development but with the release of Guild Wars 2 looming in the shadows, this decision cannot come soon enough.

Arena in Rift: What Would it Look Like?

Arena.  The word itself presents a vortex of wild opinion swirling about the MMO landscape. To some, Azeroth's arenas provided the lone reason to log in each day.  To others, arena was the clear antagonist behind incessant balance tweaks and countless fits of rage.  Blizzard said themselves that their implementation of Arena in World of Warcraft was a mistake so why would we want such a system in Rift?  The answer is quite simple:

1. Rift currently lacks any semblance of "rated" or "competitive" PvP.
2. With history as their guide, Trion can do it better

To the first point, let's consider the experience from a PvE perspective.  Several months ago, if you were a Warrior toting around a Kraken's Spine there was a certain level of unspoken respect involved.  It's the MMO equivalent of a trophy case - you wear your accomplishments on your sleeve, so to speak, and people know automatically that either you, your guild or both are good players whom have accomplished something very challenging.  It wasn't simply a matter of time before you got your Kraken's Spine as no amount of idling around could help you dodge those phase 4 waves bent on sweeping you from Akylios' platform.  In contrast, everything in Rift PvP is constrained by time and time alone.  After perhaps 100 hours, you'll have enough favor for a full set of the mid-tier PvP gear.  After perhaps 200 hours, you'll have enough for the high-end tier but with each new tier of PvE content, comes a new tier of PvP gear that pushes everything down a level and the cycle repeats itself.  Let me ask you something: when you see a Warrior with 10K health in Whitefall Steppes, what does that level of HP and the associated visuals from his or her gear say about that player's skill level?  Here's the answer: not a damn thing.  At best you could make a loose argument that, since the player has obviously put in enough time to get all that gear, their skill level should at least be marginally beyond a certain threshold but can you be certain of this?  Some of the weakest players I know have extremely high /played times.  Speaking for myself, I have over 50 days /played on my Rogue alone but I'd hardly consider myself a "high-end" PvPer.  The clear bottom line is that Rift needs some form of competitive PvP to rope in the subscriptions of those who enjoy competitive PvP or, I can say with the utmost of confidence having played the game extensively, that when Guild Wars 2 is released on August 28, 2012, most of Rift's PvP population will jump ship and never return. I don't want this.  You don't want this.  So let's do something about this.

To the second point, we need only look at Trion's track record to understand the logic here.  It is unarguable that Trion is among the absolute best in taking concepts from other games, polishing them and bringing them to Rift with their own Telaran spin.  As a one-off example, fishing was something I never enjoyed during my seven years of WoW so when Rift announced fishing was on its way to Telara, I was among the relatively uninterested.  Upon its release, however, I immediately realized that what Trion had done was taken WoW's fishing system and improved it in subtle ways.  From the stylish overlay placed upon the water, to the sounds of a catch being reeled in; the result is a system that is much more fun, much more engaging and has served as a very welcome addition to Rift's vast arsenal of engaging content.  I could spend hours discussing the borrowed ideas that Trion has taken and improved but I'll assume the point is made: Trion knows what they're doing and is not afraid to borrow another's concept and make it their own.  This isn't theft.  It isn't cheating.  It's called good business and it's an excellent practice - especially within the domain intellectual property.  After all, let's not forget how such practices provided the foundation for a certain company by the name of Microsoft.  They seem to have done quite well with themselves.....

So what would Arena look like in Rift?  First and foremost, we'd need to set some ground rules on how the system should be implemented:

1. Equalization of gear levels:  gear advantages need not apply for competitive PvP.  All players gear level should be normalized upon entering Arena to keep imbalances to a minimum.  The absolute last thing you want in any competitive PvP system is to gate it with a lengthy gear grind.  The prevailing sentiment should be clear:  jump right in, test yourself and compete.
2. Interesting Maps that Allow for Tactical Use:  the maps should be designed such that tactical advantages could be gained through proper positioning and line of sight.  Bridges, uneven terrain, pillars and more provide ample opportunities for this.  As a personal opinion, I would stray from environmental hazards such as fire or moving obstacles but even these additions could be viable if implemented with care and precision.
3. Don't be Afraid of Blanket Buffs/Debuffs:  Trion has already shown a willingness to apply arbitrary buffs and debuffs to various aspects of PvP to bring the game into relative balance.  The same should apply here: if healing is too high, then put a blanket, percentage reduction on healing while in Arena.  If damage is too high, then put a blanket, percentage decrease on it instead.  If damage is too low, then put a blanket, percentage decrease on health pools or increase on damage output.  In other words, level the playing field across the board.  Given the fact we would be using equalized gear, this should be even easier to manage.
4. Be Willing to Separate Ability Use in PvE and PvP:  As with the above point, Trion has also shown a willingness to separate how abilities work in PvE versus PvP.  There are countless examples of this such as an inability to use blinks while carrying sourcestone in Whitefall Steppes or adjusting Chloromancer heals in PvP to allow them to be competitive given their offensive healing system.
5. Hammer Out and Fine Tune Your Diminishing Returns System:  Currently the diminishing returns system in Rift is a bit clunky.  There's no real clear division between "schools" of crowd control and the entire system itself seems quite "random".  This is especially apparent in larger-scale PvP such as Conquest where I'll try to knock that Warrior away from my Marksman only to find him immune to my knock back for no apparent reason.
6. Run Rift Arena in "Seasons" and Award Titles, Mounts, Costumes and Other Fluff as Rewards:  Since we will be equalizing gear, working with blanket buffs/debuffs and are willing to separate PvE from PvP in terms of ability usage if needed, then the seasons of Arena in Rift themselves needn't adhere to any patch schedule or coincide with the release of any PvE content.  You can simply have "seasons" of Arena whenever you'd like and end them, with ample notice, whenever you'd like.
7. Allow for Cross-Faction Arena Teams:  As has been demonstrated on more than one occasion, Trion is perfectly willing to knock down the barrier between Guardian and Defiant.  Allowing Guardians and Defiants to form teams together opens the available player pool immensely and pushes Rift even further down the necessary path of moving away from the same, tired and old two-faction rivalry.

With these seven points realized, I strongly believe that Rift Arena could provide the high-end, competitive PvP that this game is missing.  Further, I know given Trion's extensive track record on rapid hotfixes and ridiculously aggressive content releases that they would be swift and precise in nipping any blatant imbalances in the proverbial bud.  From a lore perspective, the entire system could feel right at home under the guise of a proving grounds for Ascended where the victors are sent forth to champion the cause of defeating those who would unmake Telara itself.

What are your thoughts?  Do you feel the lack of truly competitive PvP in Rift is a roadblock to future growth?  How would you implement competitive PvP in Rift?

First Impressions of Conquest

1.9 hit live shards and with it came a plethora of amazing updates.  With seven years of WoW to my (dis)credit, I was, yet again, pleasantly surprised by how smooth patch day transpired.  The servers came down at exactly 8:00AM PST, just as announced, and were literally back up by 9:00AM PST, with 1.9 ready to play.  Partner this with the fact that 1.9, in and of itself, is one of the single largest patches to an MMO I've seen in over 13 years of MMO gaming, and you have yourself a worthy cause for admiration and excitement.  To be clear, here's an overview of what was included:

• 10m raid called Primeval Feast
• Open-world, three faction PvP system called Conquest
• Mentoring system
• Barber shop
• PvP Prestige ranks 41-50
• New tier of PvP gear
• World Event: Summerfest
• Instant Adventure for Freemarch, Stonefield, Gloamwood and Silverwood
• Cross-shard chat and friending

As if the above list wasn't enough, tack on countless "quality of life" improvements pushed into the game such as the automatic inventory sorting or the separation of random normal dungeon rewards from random expert dungeon rewards and you simply have to tip your hat to Trion.  Sure there were a few hitches such as Instant Adventure being disabled for a while as they looked into a couple related issues but pushing a major patch live in roughly one hour and people being able to log right in and start enjoying much of the new content is quite the accomplishment on today's MMO scene.  Further, it gave me the opportunity to take part in several games of Conquest.  With this post, I intend to share my thoughts regarding this new addition to Rift.  However, let's begin with a brief explanation of how Conquest works so the argument can begin upon a level playing field.

Conquest is set in an alternate Stillmoor where three factions are vying for control of the area.  Within the zone itself, each faction has their own starting location and, spread out across the vast terrain, are roughly 30 "extractors" which are purposed with the task of extracting sourcestone from the very soils of Telara (a planet that was created out of sourcestone by the way).  At the start of the game, all three factions begin with 0% control of Stillmoor where control is measured by the amount of active extractors in that faction's possession.  As the match transpires, factions take control of extractor locations and can eventually upgrade them with defensive turrets.  The game continues until one of the following conditions is met:

1. Any one of the three factions achieves 60% control of Stillmoor at which point that faction is immediately victorious
2. The maximum number of kills, across all three factions, has been reached - at which point a 2 minute countdown begins and the team with the most control of Stillmoor at the conclusion of that timer is victorious

Controlled extractors dig up Empowered Sourcestone around the nearby area that can be gathered by anyone and returned to a stockpile at your starting point.  Here, there are crafting recipes spanning most crafting professions that give crafters the ability to provide faction-wide buffs in the way of extra hit points, extra damage, faster mounts and more.  Lastly, there are portals that are capturable at noteworthy locations such as Zareph's Return and Briarcliff that can be used for rapidly traversing the map..

Now that we have an understanding of how Conquest is played, I can move on to the pros and cons of the system.  For each con, I'll propose a solution.  Let's get started:

Pros

• Successfully satisfies the need and desire for open-world, large-scale PvP
• Offers ample opportunity for strategy.  You can zerg around if you'd like but the more successful teams are going to be those who strike a fine balance between defense and coordinated offense.
• Incorporates crafters in a meaningful and noticeable way.
• Succeeds in reducing the PvP gear grind quite a bit by offering substantial favor and prestige gains compared to other forms of PvP.  As an example, I was a block or two into prestige rank 32 upon starting my first Conquest match.  We won that time around and I had hit prestige rank 33.
• By and large was very enjoyable and stands as a great addition to Rift's ever-growing PvP arsenal.

Cons

• Quite clearly demonstrates what may be a core engine issue resulting in draw/render problems.  Any truly "large scale" battles (i.e. 30-40 or more people at once) where clunky and resulted in very slow (as much as 10 full seconds at times) draw times for characters.  I'm fairly certain I died several times just in my first Conquest match to players that were completely invisible to me.  This is, by far, the most significant issue.
• Portal camping quickly became an issue and was especially noticeable at Zareph's Return wherein one faction would hang out by the portal without capturing it to farm those porting in before much of the fight could even be rendered to the screen.  This has actually prompted Trion to temporarily disable the ZR portal altogether while they work on a solution.
• Faction balancing is still a bit fickle and it is very easy to achieve a substantial numbers advantage before the system updates to disallow any further applicant to that faction.
• Building further upon the above issue about faction balance, an issue related to early zerging quickly became apparent as the moment Conquest became available everyone poured into the first faction, Dominion, and immediately began zerging the map to achieve a sizable % advantage before any meaningful opposition could even be mounted.  This resulted in the Oathsworn (given the location of their starting point) always immediately heading southwest to salvage back as much as possible from the Dominion.

So what can be done about all this?  There are undoubtedly many possible solutions but here I'll outline how I, personally, would go about it:

Draw/Render Time Lag Issue

This was the most easily-identifiable issue and, also, has a straightforward but perhaps not-so-easy solution.  That being said, the solution is simply this: fix it.  Being that we don't have any insight into Trion's Rift server architecture, nor do we have any deep understanding of how they've altered the Gamebryo engine to suit Rift, we can only loosely speculate as to what needs to be done in this department.  Some artificial solutions present themselves in the way of capping population count in Conquest or providing more objectives with which to potentially break up the groups a bit but either of these would simply be band-aids atop a deep wound.  Trion claims to have some optimizations on the way that will improve this particular deficiency so, for now, we can only wait and see.

Portal Camping Issue

My proposed solution to this issue is a bit unique.  I would like to see the portals removed altogether but mount speeds increased by 25-40% while in Conquest.  I would then like a new crafting recipe made available that creates a one-time use portal that would allow members of that faction to teleport to that location.  Upon teleporting, that player would be given a debuff that prevents teleportation for the next 1-2 minutes (to be adjusted as necessary).  This would allow for strategic portaling and opens up a plethora of opportunities for strategy.  Imagine a savvy Conquest faction charging a particular, under-defended extractor that is rapidly swarmed by an army portaled in, only to immediately portal out themselves to another extractor across the map.

Faction Balancing Issue

The current mechanism in place, which denies application to a faction that is "full" handles the issue admirably but the problem is simply the speed at which it updates.  So, simply put, Trion needs to ensure the existing balancing mechanism updates as quickly as possible to prevent blatant faction flooding.  Which brings me to the final 

and related issue:

Faction Flooding and Zerg Issue

The solution to this issue is, in my mind, a no-brainer: put a countdown on the start of the Conquest match much the same as is done in Warfront but make it a bit longer than Warfronts. During this time everyone would be contained within their starting area to provide time for factions to reasonably balance out, for strategy to be discussed and for people to visit the Conquest vendor without having to do so during the heat of battle and, thus, be a wasted raid spot.


All in all, Conquest is loads of fun but, as is to be expected with any new feature to a such an expansive game, there is always room for improvement.  Beyond resolutions to the aforementioned issues, some quality of life enhancements such as icons beside player names to quickly identify their faction without having to read their tooltip would be a plus.  Further, coordinating strategy within Conquest is currently very challenging as you are more or less resigned to waypoints and text chat.  I could propose some improvements in this area but I feel Kyera, over at the official Rift forums, took care of this admirably.

Why Rift is the Best MMO On the Market

Let's begin by assuming you're either new to Rift or are considering picking up the game.  In the prior case, you worry about whether your investment will pay off in fun dividends.  In the latter case, your trigger finger is a bit shaky and you're hesitant to make the jump.  With this entry to The Ascended Chronicle, I'm going to make the argument to support your leap of faith and I'm going to do so with 5 examples among myriad to whet your appetite.

1) So Different yet So Similar

For those considering the jump over to Telara from Azeroth, or any other world for that matter, often the most significant hindrance preventing the switch is one of comfort level.  I played WoW for seven years.  Prior to that I played Final Fantasy XI.  Even before that, I played Ragnarok Online.  Somewhere in between I've played Warhammer Online, Aion, Tera, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Needless to say, although I'll say it regardless, I've had my fair share of MMO experience and have performed the proverbial "jump" countless times.  Never before has a transition been so seamless as it was to Rift.  The game simply "feels" and "plays" similar to other MMOs like WoW.  It uses an interface you'll immediately be at home with and employs a combat style not too far removed from that which you're accustomed to.  To the game's credit, Trion has implemented a slight bit of realism into Telara's presentation and, as such, has forgone the inclusion of spectacular combat effects commonly referred to on MMO gaming forums as "rainbow sprinkles and unicorn farts".  Rift's combat is guttural with a tinge of realism that still gives Trion's unique take on MMOs a somehow familiar feeling.  Further, the user interface is laid out in a predictable manner and one that will take all of about 30 seconds to get used to.

2) The Little Things are often The Big Things

In 13+ years of MMO gaming experience, I've never witnessed a development studio whom gives more attention to "quality of life" improvements than Trion.  Seemingly every patch or hotifx provides a new, sometimes simple yet much appreciated improvement that aims for nothing more than improving the little things in Rift.  Need to find an item in your completely full bags quickly?  Hit CTL + F and start typing the name of the item as you inventory is dynamically highlighted in accordance with your search.  This works on both the bank and guild bank inventories as well.  There's even some special filters you can use such as search for "/a" which will highlight any artifacts in the inventory being viewed.  Are you someone who likes your portrait nameplates down near your action bars and your chat area to the screen's right?  Hit ESC and go to "Edit Layout" and you'll find that the entire interface - literally every single piece of it - can be moved wherever you want.  Do you want to roll multiple characters even putting a few of them on other realms but cringe at the thought of having to configure the UI, keybindings and macros for each character?  Trion's got your back as with the click of a button you can import any settings, from any character on any server at any time.  Further, you can be selective about what you wish to import.  Want to sell all poor quality items quickly?  There's a button for that right on the merchant pane.  Wish you could record video but don't feel like picking up a copy of Fraps and don't really know you're way around video editing software?  There's YouTube integration built right into the game that let's you easily record, encode and upload video straight to your YouTube account.  I could honestly go on for days about all the "little" things that are present in Rift simply to make your life easier but why not click around yourself?

3) It's Not "In a Few Minutes" Adventure.  It's INSTANT Adventure

Some may wonder why I'd call out this specific feature as there are countless to choose from.  In short, I feel this provides as good an example as any to make my point.  To put things in perspective, this aspect of Rift was actually put into the game during a hotfix.  Yes, you read that correctly.  It wasn't part of a major patch but rather an idea somebody at Trion had one day that was received well and given the proverbial green light.  Instant Adventure is precisely what you would expect: adventure at the click of a button.  It's one thing to grind out quests on your own or even in a small group.  It's entirely another thing to be instantly teleported to a location in Telara and take part in a dynamic campaign of scalable objectives.  Simply hit the "." key and choose between Shimmersand/Stillmoor adventures or the more challenging Ember Isle adventures.  Within 5 seconds you'll receive a prompt with which you can immediately teleport right into the action and be placed into a raid of up to 20 players.  It's good experience.  It's good notoriety.  It's a good way to earn currency such as planarite or inscribed sourcestones and, most importantly, it's great fun.  In the next patch, instant adventure, is coming to literally every zone in the game so low-level characters can participate as well as any max-level characters that wish to mentor themselves down to an appropriate level.  Don't worry, if you mentor yourself down for a lower-level instant adventure, you still get experience, notoriety and currency consistent with your level!  Simply put, Instant Adventure is innovative, fun and is yet another example among myriad of just how much passion Trion puts towards this game.  In fact, this point provides an adequate segway to my next area of focus:

4) Rift:  Clearly a Labor of Love


Seven years of WoW and I can say with confidence that there's few better feelings than that of anticipating patch day.  I knew my addons would most likely break and I understood that the game itself would be a buggy cesspool for a few days beyond launch but it didn't matter because a substantial amount of content was on its way and that's precisely why I was playing the game in the first place: to enjoy the content I'm being provided.  It was the buzz of a new Arena season and the footrace between quest hubs.  It was the set of initial footsteps into a new raid zone and aromatic scent of new challenges lying in wake.  Ah, patch day - you couldn't arrive soon enough.  Unfortunately, that rang truer than I had, at the time, anticipated.  Hindsight always being 20/20, and after a year in Telara, I look back at my time in WoW and wonder how I even managed it.  Trion puts out content at a blistering pace that makes my time in Azeroth look ridiculous by comparison.  As an example, World of Warcraft patch 4.2 was pushed live on June 28, 2011. With it came one new raid instance and a daily quest hub outside along with a handful of balance and "quality of life" fixes.  Patch 4.3 arrived on November 29, 2011 and was a much larger patch feature-wise.  To put things in perspective, between June 1 and November 30 of that same year, Trion put forth a "bit" more aggressive of a schedule.  Also, consider that my Instant Adventure example above, is one of many features that have arrived in this game via hotfix:

• Patch 1.3 - 
• New 20m Raid:  Hammerknell Fortress (11 encounters)
• Guild banks
• Free character transfers
• New tract of artifacts across all of Telara called "Twisted" artifacts essentially doubling the amount of artifacts in the game
• Raid Rift overhaul
• New World Event
• 15 hotfixes (minor patches) for Patch 1.3 
• Patch 1.4
• New Warfront:  Whitefall Steppes: Escalation
• LFG tool now cross-server
• PvP Rifts: open world, objective-based PvP hubs
• New epic questline: The Water Saga
• New 10m raid: Drowned Halls (4 encounters)
• Quest journal overhaul
• 8 hotfixes for Patch 1.4
• Patch 1.5
• Chronicles:  solo or two-person dungeons modeled after Rift's many raid environments
• Planar Attunement:  character advancement beyond the level cap
• Veterans Rewards: unique items such as mounts, costumes and more for veterans of Rift
• New tier of dungeon content: Master Mode - Take on the dungeon "Dungeon Darkening" deeps with heightened difficulty, a new encounter and greater rewards
• New Warfront:  Library of the Runemasters
• Addon support
• New World Event
• 15 hotfixes for Patch 1.5
• Patch 1.6
• Ember Isle: An entire new zone increasing the world map by roughly 20% with dailies, epic questlines, new Rifts, new zone invasions, and tuned for well-geared level 50 characters
• New 10m Raid: Rise of the Phoenix (4 encounters)
• New Warfront: Black Garden: Stockpile
• New Level 50 dungeon: Caduceus Rise - it's the size of two dungeons and can be done in halves
• New world event
• Tier 2 Planar Attunement - another tier of planar attunement trees for character advancement beyond the level cap
• 3 hotfixes for Patch 1.6

To be honest, the above list doesn't quite do the reality proper justice.  There are so many improvements and features packed into the hotfixes themselves that to list them out here ad nauseum would push this blog posting well into literary territory bordering upon absurdity.  Suffice it to say, I'll let the contents herein speak for itself.  Let me ask you, though: when was the last time you played an MMO that boasted a content update schedule so aggressive?  I'll answer that for you:  you haven't because it's never been done before.  And it's this very fact, which leads me to my final example of why Rift is, without question, the best MMO on the market today.

5) "We're Just Getting Started"

For Rift's one year anniversary, Trion did a great deal of interesting and fun things.  Among them was releasing an anniversary video to commemorate the occasion and whet the collective appetites of Ascended across the world.  At the end of that video, Scott Hartsman states that Trion, with respect to Rift, was "just getting started".  From any other company, this could easily be considered simply as market posturing and little more.  From Trion, however, you couldn't help but be instilled with a sense of wonder at how they could possibly outdo their history.  Then it began in February with the release of patch 1.7 which completely overhauled itemization at max level to make it a smooth and understandable progression.  With that patch they also included quite a few PvP updates including an all-new Mercenary system that drastically cut queue times for Warfronts.  That same patch also introduced in-game weddings, a "purpose" system for helping new players through the extensive soul system, approximately twice as many expert mode dungeons to run, a new Chronicle and a new master mode dungeon.  Just two months and several hotfixes later, patch 1.8 was released offering a new 20m raid, two new professions (Fishing and Survival), a Guild Finder system, Leaderboards spanning every  aspect of Rift and a new "Seal" item slot.  We're only halfway through the year on this 13th day of June 2012 yet patch 1.9 is already on the PTS while patches 1.10 and 1.11 are both still planned for later this year.  Were we to stop there, one might still marvel before the blistering pace at which Trion pushes quality content into their game.  Yet even still, it was recently announced that Trion has all along been putting together an expansion that will, literally, triple the size of the known world.  What's more is that this expansion is targeted for Fall 2012 and includes, at bare minimum, the following:

• Two new continents each as large or larger than the existing Telaran continent
• Countless epic quest sagas taking you through all the new lands and telling their stories
• A new, faction-neutral stronghold called Tempest Bay
• A raised level cap to 60 from 50
• A new soul for each of the four callings to bring the total soul's per calling to 9
• Instant Adventure for every new zone
• 7 new dungeons
• 3 new raids
• 1 new chronicle
• New Rift type: Hunt Rifts - rifts that scale in difficulty to provide increasing challenges over time
• A colossus world boss whom interacts with the environment in ways never seen before in MMOs.  He smashes through walls, scales bridges and can be attacked via several different targeted areas that each dynamically alter the encounter.  The encounter itself is more than just your typical raid encounter as you will use the environment itself, power-ups, launchpads, cannons and more to take down this monstrosity with your fellow Ascended.
• Player housing in the form of Dimensions.  Enjoy sipping mead from atop your stool in the Granite Falls Inn?  Why not carve out your own alternate reality version of that very location and make it your own!
• Grandmaster crafting
• New item slot: capes

And, as always, the above is just scratching the surface.  There are countless more improvements coming to the game in Rift: Storm Legion that to mention them all here would, well, hopefully you get the picture by now.

So what's holding you back?  I've played MMOs for 13+ years, and Rift is easily the best one I've laid my twitchy little fingers on.  The content keeps on coming, the improvements keep on rolling in and the future for Trion's labor of love is both bright and inviting.  Grab a friend and go solve the many puzzles and mental challenges hiding away in the corners and narrows of Telara.  Gather a group of allies and take on some Ember Isle Onslaughts.  Theorycraft until your heart's content with the expansive soul system that truly does let you play your class how you want to play it.  No matter what it is you enjoy most in an MMO, Rift has something to deeply sink your teeth into.  I'm Synovia on Faeblight-US and I'll see you in Telara.

PvP Woes and How to Fix It

My initial foray into MMO PvP began with World of Warcraft over seven years ago.  At that impressionable age of 21, I was handed a copy of the game by my boss at the game development studio I was working at as a co-op during college.  Initially playing a Human Priest named Ninthcircle at the request of my boss in exchange for a free copy of the game (the class being the request and not the ridiculous name) I immediately had my expectations of what MMO PvP could be shattered.  Prior to ever setting foot in Warsong Gulch or waiting for the Tauren Shaman named Uenaydar to come 1-shot me with a Windfury proc in front of Stromgarde Keep in the Arathi Highlands, my limited understanding of what MMO PvP could bring to the table was that it would be clunky and nowhere near the responsiveness I was accustomed to being a sponsored Unreal Tournament player.  Quickly, however, I realized the error of my assessment and my world was expanded to include MMO PvP under the banner of competitive and skill-based gaming.

Fast forward roughly seven years to February 2011.  My time in WoW had more than run its course and Rift had launched both smoothly and successfully.  Now a Defiant Rogue named Synovia, I began plotting my Warfront domination plans.  Much to my dismay, this plan never really came to fruition as it quickly screeched to an abrupt halt by what I considered then and still consider now, to be one of the worst grinds I've ever done in any game.  I am of course referring to the gear grind in Rift PvP.

During my WoW days, I used to complain about the amount of time it took to obtain enough gear to be "competitive" in Battlegrounds.  In retrospect, the time investment required in Rift to obtain said gear makes the same grind in WoW look like a proverbial walk in the park.  In WoW I could spend a week or two taking my lumps in Battlegrounds and showing up to the occasional Astranaar raid to then find myself fully decked out in gear that at least makes me "competitive".  In Rift, the same cannot be said.  I've had many argue against me on this point but, quite frankly, the math isn't on your side.  That said, let's define what I mean by "competitive" in the sense of PvP gear.  At present, I would consider "competitive" to be having your character completely decked out in, at minimum, the middle tier of gear.  For Defiant Rogues, this is the Vigilante's set.  The set prior to this one is the Seditionist's set and Rift employs a system wherein you must trade in the previous tier's item along with a chunk of favor to obtain the upgraded, next-tier version.  Here's what you're looking at in terms of favor:

• Helm:  20800 + 54400 = 75200
• Shoulders:  20800 + 54400 = 75200
• Chest:  27200 + 68800 = 96000
• Belt:  16000 + 40000 = 56000
• Legs:  27200 + 68800 = 96000
• Feet:  16000 + 40000 = 56000
• Neck:  19200 + 48000 = 67200
• Ring:  12800 + 12800 + 32000 + 32000 = 89600

With the above list alone, I can illustrate my point beautifully and I'll even exclude MH weapon, OH weapon, ranged weapon, trinket and an entire core which, in and of themselves, are at least 500,000 favor combined to acquire.

Continuing on, we're looking at a price tag of 611200.  I want that number to sink in for a moment.  Let it really sink in deep.  Now, I want you to consider the following:  this weekend was a bonus weekend for Port Scion.  To take full advantage of this opportunity, I went Saboteur in attempt to maximize my potential favor gains.  This weekend, on a bonus weekend in Port Scion, I averaged roughly 5000-6000 favor per game when we won and a little over half that when we lost.  However, let's not even consider losses.  Heck, I'll even take the upper bound of my example and assume I made 6000 favor every single game.  Each game took between 10-40 minutes to complete, depending on how the game was being played.  That said, let's take a nice, round 30 minutes per game, and ignore any time in queue.  This yields the following calculation:

611200 / 6000 = 101.866.

Don't worry, I'll even round down for you:

101 * 30 = 3030 minutes

3030 / 60 = 50.5 hours

So assuming absolutely optimal favor gains (unless you are fortunate enough to still have a favor vial or three at your disposal, despite the fact that my several concessions herein would more or less negate the benefit) based on it being a bonus weekend and you winning every single match, no queues, not including any weapons, trinkets and also not including a PvP core of any form, you are looking at a bare minimum of 50.5 hours of time in-game before you will reach a level of gear that I am being extremely generous in calling "competitive".

How often do you play?  For the sake of argument, let's assume you play a couple hours every single day of the week.

50.5 / 2 = 25.25 days until you can be even remotely competitive.

But Synovia!  You're forgetting about the bolstering system!  The bolstering system buffs your stats until you reach a certain level of prestige!  Actually, that's not entirely true.  The bolstering system monitors your character's stats and will turn off after you pass a certain threshold.  This means that if you roll into a Warfront in PvE gear because you haven't yet put in a full 50+ hours to get the PvP gear to be competitive, you will not receive Ascended Courage.  So should we then purposely gimp ourselves until we've put in those 50+ hours?  Is it ideal to get your proverbial shit pushed in for 50+ hours of game time so you can experience the "fun" of Rift PvP?

Absolutely not and, quite frankly, the current system is unnacceptable.  I've said this quite a few times on the forum and I'm going to say it once more here:.

The gear to be competitive in PvP should NEVER be the reward for one's efforts.  The gear to be competitive should be trivial to obtain and the reward for one's efforts should be titles, mounts, pets, dyes, costumes or any other intangible that doesn't directly affect the competitiveness of Rift PvP in a substantial way.

So how do we fix Rift PvP?  Well, there is certainly more wrong with it than what this blog post explains.  There are class balance issues (such as that 11K health Warrior who won't die, has the mobility of a Feynman Diagram and is shitting on your entire team while out-damaging the supposedly overpowered Saboteurs).  There are also some issues with the game's engine itself in that the fluidity and responsiveness of Rift PvP combat isn't yet on par with that of WoW or even Aion.  However, we have to start at the root of the problem and I believe my sentiment herein to be precisely that.  I would therefore propose the following:

1. Use two tiers of PvP gear instead of three and keep the "trade-up" system in place wherein you trade the lesser item and some favor for an upgraded one 
2. Make the first tier of PvP gear obtainable in two week's casual play time (a couple hours a night) or less but keep the upgraded tier at a costly level to still provide a "grind" for those who, for some ridiculous reason, actually want it.  Ensure that the "upgraded" items are only slight improvements over their predecessors.
3. Offer titles, mounts, pets, dyes, costumes, visual weapon effects, fun PvP fluff items (i.e. Flag of Ownership from WoW - it was a lot of fun killing someone and slamming a "Flag of Ownership" into their corpse) and perhaps small upgrades such as PvP runes and PvP weapon enchantments as the "grindable" rewards for PvP
4. Make Unseen (and the Guardian equivalent) reputation obtainable in Warfronts.  I didn't touch on this particular pain point in this article but it's desperately needed.

Future considerations for Rift PvP, beyond Conquest, would be the following:

• Offer a Rift version of WoW's "Rated Battlegrounds" in that anyone who has achieved maximum prestige rank may queue into rated versions of Warfronts against other maximum prestige rank players.  Offer unique rewards for participation in this.
• PvP Rifts, which were a great thought, need an overhaul to make them worthwhile.  Increase favor and reputation gains therein and shorten the running distance to sourcestone drop-offs a bit so you aren't running across Ember Isle on foot to drop off a piece of sourcestone for 5 (yes, five) Unseen reputation and 125 (lol) favor.